Instinet is lowering their rates because they are losing ECN market share to ISLD & REDI.Their fees are 3 times(or higher) what other ECN's charge introducing brokers. It may take a while for the retail firms to get the price break and pass lower
costs to the trader. If you are trading 500 shares or less, I see no
reason to use INCA. INCA is slower than ISLD or REDI and unless you are an intstitutional trader, you probably would not do much
trading on INCA. The cost structure and speed of ISLD & REDI, make these ECN's a better choice for the trader.

Instinet has increased the rebate for broker-dealers that provide liquidity to $0.002 per share from $.0005 per share, a 300% increase. The charge for taking liquidity remains at $0.003 per share. With these new rates, the cost for a customer who provides and takes liquidity in equal amounts will now be only $0.0005 cents per share, or 50 cents per 1,000 shares.

I think the problem with INCA is their high rates (to Introducing Brokers-IB's) compared to ISLD for example. INCA may charge IB's .0050 to .015(example only-check with your IB for rates) , compared to .0025 for ISLD. Instinet also charges extra for a INCA terminal to see depth of book. I can see depth of book for nothing on ISLD! Since Intstinet has acquired Pro-Trader I think they are seeing that they priced themselves out of
the direct access market(little guy) and let REDI/ISLD take ECN market share. I'm sure most of the NASDAQ traders at Pro Trader use ISLD or REDI unless Instinet has reduced their rates and and increased their ECN's speed/connectivity. I think the liquidity rebate is a help , but there are other issues that need to be resolved before INCA will stop losing more ECN market share.

Like IB & Bright, we include INCA in our fees with no pass thru's added. I just gave the INCA pass thru's as an example.If you check the majority of NASDAQ direct access firms in the Elite Broker section, the majority of firms add INCA as a pass thru. IB
will probably get charged by INCA but not add the pass thru charges to the rates. Regardless of INCA fees, ISLD & REDI work see to work better for small orders. ISLD can execute odd lot NASDAQ orders very quickly. Having an Instinet terminal can be an
advantage to Market Makers or Institutional traders but for the customer the expense of an INCA terminal is probably not worth it.

part of inca's price schedule is volume dependent. they will charge lower fees for higher volume. Nevertheless, they are more expensive and their price change was long overdue. Perhaps a bit of too little too late.

The full press release:

New York, March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Instinet Group Inc. slashed
its fees for trades in Nasdaq-listed stocks by 60 percent to lure
more business after rival Island ECN Inc. cut its prices last
month.
Instinet's electronic trading system, used mostly by hedge
funds, mutual funds and brokerages, also lowered fees on exchange-
traded funds, the company said.
``Price has asserted itself as a significant concern for
broker-dealers,'' said Doug Atkin, Instinet's president and chief
executive officer, in a press release.
The price reductions come four months after Island surpassed
Instinet as the No. 1 market for Nasdaq stock trades. Island is
also the biggest market for exchange-traded funds based on the
Nasdaq 100 Index, one of the most heavily traded securities.
Instinet, a unit of Reuters Group Plc, will now rebate to
customers who post offers to buy or sell shares on its system --
known as ``liquidity providers'' -- 20 cents per 100 shares. They
must trade at least 500,000 shares monthly, as the majority of
Instinet's customers do.
Previously, for customers who posted bids and offers, the ECN
awarded credits on future trades of 5 cents per 100 shares. The
credits were awarded only to investors who traded at least 75
million shares a month on Instinet -- a small fraction of its
customers.

Exchange-Traded Funds

For traders on Instinet who respond to posted offers and bids
-- so-called liquidity takers -- it now costs 30 cents per 100
shares. Instinet charges 75 cents per 100 shares if the customer
trades less than 500,0000 shares a month. Previously, most
customers paid between 40 cents and $1.50 per 100 shares when they
responded to a posted offer. The cost depended on how much
business they did with Instinet. The few customers who traded at
least 75 million shares a month paid 30 cents per 100 share.
Instinet also slashed its prices on exchange-traded funds.
Investors who post offers to buy or sell ETFs on Instinet will get
rebates of 15 cents per 100 shares. Investors who trade with those
offers will be charged 19 cents per 100 shares. Previously,
investors paid up to $1.00 per 100 shares, whether they were
posting an offer or trading with it.
Shares of Instinet fell 49 cents, or 6 percent to $7.64. The
stock has fallen 46 percent since it went public last May.